Help:Variables

Magic words are strings of text that MediaWiki associates with a return value or function, such as time, site details, or page names. This page is about usage of standard magic words; for a technical reference, see Manual:Magic words.

On wikis with language variants, don't perform any content language conversion (character and phase) in article display; for example, only show Chinese (zh) instead of variants like zh_cn, zh_tw, zh_sg, or zh_hk.

__NOTITLECONVERT____NOTC__

On wikis with language variants, don't perform language conversion on the title (all other content is converted).

Variables

Variables return information about the current page, wiki, or date. Their syntax is similar to templates. Variables marked as "[expensive]" are tracked by the software, and the number that can be included on a page is limited.

If a template name conflicts with a variable, the variable will be used (so to transclude the template Template:PAGENAME you would need to write {{Template:PAGENAME}}). In some cases, adding parameters will force the parser to treat a variable as a template; for example, {{CURRENTDAYNAME|x}} transcludes Template:CURRENTDAYNAME.

Date & time

The following variables return the current date and time in UTC.

Due to MediaWiki and browser caching, these variables frequently show when the page was cached rather than the current time.

Format the current page's title header. The value must be equivalent to the default title: only capitalization changes and replacing spaces with underscores. It can be disabled or enabled by $wgAllowDisplayTitle; disabled by default before 1.10+, enabled by default thereafter.

Used for categorizing pages, sets a default category sort key. For example if you put {{DEFAULTSORT:Smith, John}} at the end of John Smith, the page would be sorted under "S" by default in categories.

1.10+

Statistics

Numbers returned by these variables normally contain separators (commas or spaces, depending on the local language), but can return raw numbers with the ":R" flag (for example, {{NUMBEROFPAGES}} → 6,932 and {{NUMBEROFPAGES:R}} → 6932). Use "|R" for magic words that require a parameter like PAGESINCATEGORY (for example {{PAGESINCATEGORY:Help}} and {{PAGESINCATEGORY:Help|R}}).

Number of pages in the given namespace (replace index with the relevant namespace index). For instance, {{PAGESINNAMESPACE:14}} will output the number of category pages. {{PAGESINNS:0}} differs from {{NUMBEROFARTICLES}} in that the former includes redirects and disambiguation pages. Disabled by default, enable with $wgAllowSlowParserFunctions.

The following are equivalents encoded for use in MediaWiki URLs (spaces replaced with underscores and some characters percent-encoded):

{{NAMESPACEE}}

{{SUBJECTSPACEE}}

{{TALKSPACEE}}

As of 1.15+, these can take a page name parameter and will return the namespace of the page name parameter, instead of the current page's:

{{NAMESPACE:Template:Main Page}} → Template

{{SUBJECTSPACE:Template:Main Page}} → Template

{{TALKSPACE:Template:Main Page}} → Template talk

Parser functions

Parser functions are very similar to variables, but take one or more parameters (technically, any magic word that takes a parameter is a parser function), and the name is sometimes prefixed with a hash to distinguish them from templates.

Namespaces

{{ns:}} returns the localized name for the namespace with that index. {{nse:}} is the equivalent encoded for MediaWiki URLs. It does the same, but it replaces spaces with underscores, making it usable in external links.

The input with decimal and decimal group separators, and localized digit script, according to the wiki's default locale. The |R parameter can be used to unformat a number, for use in mathematical situations.

Note: In the example above, "your pref" refers to your date preference on the current MediaWiki wiki only.

Formats an unlinked date based on user "Date format" preference, and adds metadata tagging it as a formatted date. For logged-out users and those who have not set a date format in their preferences, dates can be given a default: mdy, dmy, ymd, ISO 8601 (all case sensitive). If only the month and day are given, only mdy and dmy are valid. If a format is not specified or is invalid, the input format is used as a default. If the supplied date is not recognized as a valid date (specifically, if it contains any metadata such as from a nested use of these or a similar template), it is rendered unchanged, and no (additional) metadata is generated.

Although the ISO 8601 standard requires that dates be in the Gregorian calendar, the ISO parameter in this function will still format dates that fall outside the usual Gregorian range (e.g. dates prior to 1583). Also, the magic word cannot properly convert between negative years (used with ISO 8601) and years BC or years BCE (used in general writing).

Inserts a string of padding characters (character chosen in third parameter; default '0') of a specified length (second parameter) next to a chosen base character or variable (first parameter). The final digits or characters in the base replace the final characters in the padding; i.e. {{padleft:44|3|0}} produces 044. The padding string may be truncated if its length does not evenly divide the required number of characters.bug (fixed in r45734): multibyte characters are interpreted as two characters, which can skew width. These also cannot be used as padding characters.

Outputs the correct given pluralization form (parameters except first) depending on the count (first parameter). Plural transformations are used for languages like Russian based on "count mod 10".

{{grammar:N|noun}}

Outputs the correct inflected form of the given word described by the inflection code after the colon (language-dependent). Grammar transformations are used for inflected languages like Polish. See also Manual:$wgGrammarForms.